Almost awesome, but the plot suffers for being too concise which creates unrealistic situations and apparently false dilemmas. Lanning's fully furnished home is scheduled for demolition just because he's dead, which is supposed to be accepted as standard procedure. Further more, Lanning orders his own murder by Sonny, who could have survived the jump himself with an altogether less cryptic message.
Presumably there are reasons for these things, but the narrow focus of the story on the character of Spooner frankly leaves them seeming like circumstantial narrative devices. Why, for example, did the driver of a semi falling asleep cause Spooner's accident? All other cargo transit we see is automated, and he is twice directly criticised for driving manually.
The rumblings of luddite discontent, like the images of down-town squalor or the less affluent of the citizens are treated to the same polished, two-dimensional finish that the anachronisms of Spooner's lifestyle convey. The focus on Spooner as a man-apart, lone-warrior figure is altogether too close, neglecting the broader world that would make a richer, grittier film. More broadly, the script lacks the philosophical intellect we might expect in a murder-mystery tale set at the precipice of revolution; eg. any homicide detective who needs the allegory of Hansel&Gretel to prompt a search for clues, is in the wrong job. Putting a contemporary every-man in the role of a future detective makes the film more watchable, but regrettably leaves the film itself feeling like 'lights and clockwork.'
